Monday, 23 November 2015

As many of you will know, when our founder Robin Pannell died in January 2008 he bequeathed Carmel Books to the British District of the Society of Saint Pius X.

For the past five years a stable home has been provided for Carmel Books to pursue its apostolate in an SSPX-owned property in Highclere, Hampshire, for which we offer our grateful thanks to Fr. Paul Morgan.

A review of the SSPX District's operational finances has been undertaken by its new Superior Fr. Robert Brucciani, and he explains on page 6 of the new District newsletter, Ite Missa Est, that:

"From 30th November, Carmel Books will undergo a change of ownership. For the last 5 years it has been owned by the Society of Saint Pius X and has been managed by Mr. Michael Fishwick. Following the implementation of austerity measures (see below), from 30th November, Carmel Books will be owned and run exclusively by Mr. Michael Fishwick. A new address will be advertised forthwith and business will continue as usual... and may the faithful continue to purchase good Catholic literature from Carmel Books".

As manager of the apostolate I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Fr. Brucciani for providing for the continuation of Carmel Books as an independent Catholic bookseller. In the short-term, in a practical sense, it means that Carmel Books must search for and find a suitable new base of operation and that we will have to continue with a small range of stock until a suitable property is established once again.

To this end we are pleased to announce that we will be working very closely with a Catholic charity, The Saint George Educational Trust - www.sget.info - who recently published New Mass or Traditional Mass: A question of faith and issued a pre-Vatican II reprint of A Simple Prayer Book. There are many more very necessary and useful titles to come from SGET in the coming months and years, which will be available from Carmel Books.

From St. Andrew's Day 2015, until further notice, Carmel Books can be contacted at 215 Andover House, George Yard, Andover, Hampshire, SP10 1PB.

Our email address remains the same - enquiries.carmelbooks@gmail.com - as does our website - www.carmel-books.org - and we encourage you all to refer to the Carmel Books blog every so often to learn of further developments and updates.

Wednesday, 11 November 2015

The armistice signed ninety-seven years ago, which was hailed as putting an end to 'The War That Will End War,' was really only a temporary halt to the genocidal objectives of the New Unhappy Lords of the Modern Age. Every war and conflict that followed throughout the 20th Century and into the 21st can trace its cause to the social upheavals, fragmentation of Old Empires and the consolidation of a growing New World Empire that resulted from the 'Great War'.

Two seminal books were published nine years ago that laid out Catholic Just War principles, and questioned from every conceivable angle the morality of pursuing War in Iraq. Those principles of Catholic Just War doctrine remain just as profound, just as vital and just as applicable today whether it be in regard to the ongoing butchering of Syria and Iraq, or the insane provocations continually pursued against Iran and Russia, whether it be by direct military intervention, or by the training and funding of Takfiri or Banderite terror forces.

Refuting the myth that America's socially conservative thinkers, journalists, and commentators tended to support the war in Iraq, Neo-Conned: A Condemnation of War in Iraq incorporates the opinions of some of the leading figures in America's conservative movement on why the decision to go to war and the continuing occupation of Iraq was and is the wrong course of action. Twenty-five articles by influential thinkers such as former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, syndicated columnists Sam Francis, Joseph Sobran, Eric Margolis, and Charley Reese, leading economist Jude Wanniski, social critics Tom Fleming and Paul Gottfried, and religious figures Bishop John Michael Botean and the late Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani make the case against the Iraqi conflict using conservative arguments on geopolitics, Christian morality, and common sense. Four detailed appendices on the war teachings of the Catholic Church are also provided. In Neo-Conned Again: Hypocrisy, Lawlessness and the Rape of Iraq the moral, political, and legal problems surrounding the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq are addressed with uncommon frankness by an eclectic mix of some of the world's most influential academics, lawyers, journalists, politicians, and military, intelligence, and media experts. Contributions include academics such as Noam Chomsky, Immanuel Wallerstein, and Claes Ryn; journalists Milton Viorst, Robert Fisk, Kirkpatrick Sale, and Justin Raimondo; former CIA professional Ray McGovern; former Defense Intelligence Agency professional W. Patrick Lang; and Fr. Jean-Marie Benjamin, personal friend of the former Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq Traiq Aziz. Discussing the Iraq war and related issues such as the legal foundation of the war on terror, the detention practices at Guantanamo Bay, and the roots of the American Neo-Conservative ideology, the essays illustrate the hypocrisy and illegality of America's stance on terrorism and its policies of aggression in the Middle East.

Tuesday, 10 November 2015

The Irish military chaplain Father William Doyle S.J. (1873-1917) combined humour, holiness and courage in an outstanding degree.

His death during the third battle of Ypres left intact for posterity the detailed spiritual diaries in which he had recorded for private use his methodical and gruelling path of self-conquest and the growth of his passionate love of Christ. Providence furnished him as biographer the most learned Irishman of his generation: his friend Professor Alfred O'Rahilly.

The resulting biography is a compulsively readable and revealing exploration of sanctity under the microscope, by an author whose calm judgement never falters. Father Doyle had devoted his life to the preaching of parish missions and had received the extraordinary grace of never once failing to obtain the conversion of the straying sheep, even hardened sinners, he sought out.

But the grace he most yearned for was martyrdom, and he finally won his palm on the bloodiest battlefield of history.